Organ transplants are complex surgeries. Now, a noninvasive robotic liver transplant has been performed for the first time. Are we seeing a paradigm shift in transplantation surgery?
Innovative technology has long been an indispensable part of modern medicine – be it increasingly precise imaging procedures, or AI-supported medication plans. Noninvasive robotic surgery is also becoming increasingly popular. A surgical team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has now successfully performed the first robotic liver transplant. Is this the future of transplant surgery technology?
Typically, liver transplantation is an “open” surgery. Of all transplantations, liver transplantation is a notoriously difficult one, as removing the diseased organ can often lead to severe bleeding. Surgeons have therefore long tried to find a less invasive transplant method. But most transplants – including liver transplants – are too complex for laparoscopic surgery. That’s why surgeons tried a robotic approach.
Robotic surgeries are also noninvasive procedures in which the operating surgeon maintains full control of the robot using a type of joystick. “For this robotic liver transplant, the surgeons operated through several half-inch keyhole incisions and made a single 6-inch vertical incision between the abdominal muscles for removing the diseased organ and placing the new liver, which is about the size of a football, inside the abdomen,” according to a Washington University School of Medicine press release. “This incision is considerably smaller than the one used traditionally and does not require cutting through abdominal muscles, enabling a faster recovery.” Overall, the surgery took about 8 hours, which is on the higher end of the planned surgery time. By comparison, a traditional open liver transplant is estimated to take around 6–8 hours.
The clear advantage of noninvasive surgical techniques is that wound healing and general recovery are usually much faster. In addition, patients often suffer less pain. With a conventional liver transplant, patients need an average of six weeks before they can comfortably walk again. In contrast, the 60-year-old transplant patient was able to walk again after just four weeks following the successful minimally invasive robotic liver transplant. What’s more: he was also cleared to resume golfing and swimming.
“The transplant was a success: the operation went smoothly, the new liver started working right away, and the patient recovered without any surgical complications,” explained surgeon Adeel Khan who was responsible for the surgery. “Liver transplantation is the most difficult of the abdominal organs to consider for a minimally invasive approach – given the difficulty of removing a failing liver and successfully implanting the new organ,” added William Chapman, MD, director of Washington University’s Division of General Surgery and chief of the transplant surgery section. Currently, five surgeons are trained in doing this robotic surgery. “This number will increase to seven by the end of the summer,” Khan previewed.
Image source: Jonathan Borba, Unsplash
